quote:

Originally posted by chellim1:

quote:

Originally posted by old rugged cross:
I accept the criticism. But, I am guessing 90% here would feel the same way if tomorrow they had a situation and went to their agent and discussed filing a claim. It is a racquet and a scam. Ymmv

Yes, and no.
In one way, I agree... it's a scam. The insurance company always comes out ahead because if they don't, they raise the premium enough in the future to make up for it. And they keep raising premiums on good customers until they leave for another company.

But on the other hand, insurance should only be for large losses, like when your house burns down. That keeps it affordable. If every roof is paid for by an insurance company that only raises premiums and increases the cost of roofing.

This is where I sit on the matter…


We got hit by a tornado in 2021. My insurance was great, no issues, replaced everything 100%.

quote:

Originally posted by Schmelby:
I've had the same policy with State Farm for 31 years. I finally used it once two years ago to reshingle the roof. I didn't pay one penny, I did pay for the new gutters and down spouts.
…

What was the total you paid in 29 years of insurance premiums? That’s how many pennies you paid.

quote:

Originally posted by Suppressed:
In my neighborhood, several homeowners are ripping off the insurance company. They are getting all new roofing and siding for some hail storm we supposedly had. The same contractor is doing the work and when he wanted me to let him inspect my house for damage, I told him to take a hike.

That’s part of the problem. Same with car insurance. The second most people get hit it turns into a lottery ticket for them.


For homeowners we are subsidizing places like Florida.

quote:

Originally posted by Salty Dawg:
Not sure why the deductible that you agreed to and that is factored into the premiums you are paying makes homeowner's insurance a ripoff?

What likely happened here is that State Farm recently changed the way that they do roof deductibles, and most people don't bother to read their policy renewal paperwork when it comes each year.

Before 1-2 years ago, there was one deductible for your entire Homeowner's Insurance policy. Usually $500, $1000, or $2000. Applied across the board.

But starting a year or two ago, State Farm (and most other insurance companies) have started converting policies in most states over to a percentage deductible for roofs.

Rather than the flat $500/$1k/$2k for the rest of the policy, your roof deductible is now separate, and is generally now 1%-3% of the house's value.

For example, my homeowners deductible has always been $1000, for the past 15 years. But as of this year my roof deductible specifically is now $3600, since my home is worth $360k and my roof deductible is now 1%.

It pays to read your renewal notices.

(And if you're reading this and yours hasn't been converted yet, it probably will be within the next year or so, though there may be some states where it stays the same flat deductible due to state-specific insurance regulations or similar.)

It's not the insurance companies, well, not completely their fault.

Roofing companies now use hail and wind reporting to scout areas for damages, then they send in teams of high pressure sales people who assess the "damage" on the roof and help you file a claim. 25 years ago it wasn't as simple as having AI compile data on weather patters in Florida and target hail ravaged subdivisions.

If you file a roof claim and your insurance carrier doesn't play ball then enter the civil tort attorney who files a suit against the carrier. Now the carrier has both replacement costs and legal fees to cover.


Down here it's Jasper Roofing among other large companies that do this and they tie in with Morgan and Morgan. Both combined to buy the web page roofclaim.com, and made so much they bought the sponsorship of an NCAA football bowl.

So if you want to know why you insurance premiums keep going up by large amounts, and deductibles on claims going up it's not simply companies trying to screw customers, tort attorney's and technology.

It got so bad here with autos and John Morgan, Dan Newlin et al that DeSantis signed legislation to limit tort recover claims in FL this year. It needs to be expanded to all tort claims in the state.

You want to fix it, then fix tort laws in your state regarding the civil suits filed by mega law firms and technology.

Tort Reform Lowers Cost for Floridians

You want to fix it, write your state reps and refer them to FL House Bill 837 and ask them why they are not fixing the problem your state.

Also all claims go into a national database, every insurer subscribes and pulls data that makes getting a quote impossible. It can take up to 5 years without a claim to get past the problem of having filed a claim.

Technology and lawyers, all you need are guns and money....

Jasper

I live in hurricane alley. Bulls eye for Katrina. After fighting with insurance companies over wind vs water many homeownere chose to go without if their mortgages were paid off. Just banking the money in a separate fund for rebuilding if needed. {The wind vs water was a big deal here because the insurance companies wanted to blame water for the damage not the wind. The battle went on for years.]

quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:
I live in hurricane alley. Bulls eye for Katrina. After fighting with insurance companies over wind vs water many homeownere chose to go without if their mortgages were paid off. Just banking the money in a separate fund for rebuilding if needed. {The wind vs water was a big deal here because the insurance companies wanted to blame water for the damage not the wind. The battle went on for years.]

I thought about this but it would take too many years putting away what I would have paid in premiums to save up enough for a total (or even partial) loss. If I thought I could I would live long enough and make it 30-40 years without a claim I could try it. But being in a hurricane prone area I doubt that will happen.

During one of the past hurricanes here (I think it was Ike), a guy I worked with chose not to buy flood insurance and he lived on a creek. Of course his house flooded and FEMA gave him 20 or 30k (I cannot recall which one) even though he chose not to buy flood insurance. I have been paying for the last quarter century with no claims, he took the gamble and got our tax money. He chose to not pay for national flood insurance but gets free money from FEMA.

One of a million reasons why I am fed up paying taxes when the govt wastes what we give them. At least insurance pays out when i have a claim.

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:
Does your insurance agent drive a better car than you?

Yes.

Come to think of it, I should give him some crap about that when we meet next. (We do get along fairly well.)

Back in 2024 we had a nasty hail storm come thru the area. Our house and our barn and detached garage/shop suffered considerable damage. The out buildings are metal. A local roofer (not a scammer) came out examined all of it. $40,000.00 for total replacement of all three.

My insurance company (Hartford) sent out an appraiser and he agreed with the damages. Our policy clearly states that our deductible is 1% of the stated value. That came to about $4100. Everything got replaced on time and on budget. They did not raise our rates for anything in 2025.

I got no complaints.

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Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:
After fighting with insurance companies over wind vs water many homeownere chose to go without if their mortgages were paid off.

Been doing that for a while now. Did not renew, after I paid off for the house. Allstate, not knowing that, or maybe they knew but didn’t care, threatened me with the you’re required to have insurance bullshit. I basically told them to go fuck themselves.

An pipe incident some years ago with flooded areas in our house was a lesson how these things can go badly with USAA. They failed to return calls, our representative went on vacation for two weeks without telling us, and it took legal threats to get them to follow the policy.

The restoration company USAA hired quietly took 23% of the everything, told us repeatedly they're make everything just like it was before, then hired cheap contractors who repeatedly did shoddy work with the cheapest possible materials. When I called them on bad work, they tried to get us to accept it and then took weeks to redo things. Overall, it was a six month process to get things fixed when it could have been done in a month.

After going through that, we raised our deductibles as high as possible and determined to only deal with insurance with catastrophic losses.

I’m convinced that State Farm is in some kind of financial jeopardy now and not disclosing it because they have just been going crazy raising rates over the past two years.

I tried to get a broker to get me a better deal this year and he got me quotes for auto insurance from another carrier that were like half of what I’m paying for with State Farm but they refused to take on my homeowners insurance, something about my roof not being something they cover with a third floor dormer having a metal roof.

I decided to not do it as I figured State Farm would screw me for dropping the auto by doubling my homeowners or something like that.

Been with State Farm for auto since 1995 and homeowners since 2007 and I suspect they have me filed under “whale” who will pay whatever they demand.

I do need to really find a better deal this year.

If Kin insurance is available in your state, check it out. Every other homeowner insurance that I have dealt with offers a take it or leave it policy.

Kin gave me all sorts of flexibility, allowing me to tailor the coverage and keep the premium under control.

www.kin.com/states-we-serve

I utilize a Regional company that only operates & provides coverage in New England. This has helped to mitigate huge increases based on natural disasters in other regions of the US. (my rates still go up, just not astronomically)

quote:

Originally posted by bryan11:
An pipe incident some years ago with flooded areas in our house was a lesson how these things can go badly with USAA. They failed to return calls, our representative went on vacation for two weeks without telling us, and it took legal threats to get them to follow the policy.

I had a completely opposite experience with USAA. Had a similar thing happen - water heater pipe sprung a leak and flooded my place while I was out of town. I came home to everything under three feet high ruined by water damage and mold. They didn't even come to inspect. They just cut me a check. I hired my own restoration outfit and did the rebuild myself. I was pretty impressed with the service.

Recently, though, I had ice dam damage to my roof with rotting soffits and some of the underlayment. Basically, I needed a new roof. It took them several months to get an inspector out and he ultimately denied everything. It cost me $37K. Not real happy with them, and I'm currently shopping around for a different company as their rates have gone WAY up.

It seems all insurances, medical, auto, and home, are trying to subdivide the risks as much as possible. Sure, it makes sense to not cover or charge more for identifiable high risks. But it seems that it is ever more painful for all of us due to exclusions or even dropping coverage altogether as this tactic is refined down to granular detail.

We pay no extra for wildfire coverage, but a few houses away they do. Many are having their coverage cancelled outright. It is no longer a pooling of risk, it is only covering the lowest risk.

I had the opposite situation. I hadn't reviewed my policy in a while. Had my roof replaced and it was $500 or $1000 which my roofer paid me for advertising by allowing yard signs in my yard. Net zero cost to me. I called my agent afterwards and increased the deductible to save money. I was paying that deductible every 5 years or something crazy like that.

I've only had three claims ever. Two as renter and one as owner. In all three cases I found the precess easy and more than fair.

quote:

Originally posted by tatortodd:
I've been a homeowner in US for 24 of last 26 years. I've had my current insurance company at 5 homes in 4 US states as well as 1 rental in Canada. Zero homeowner claims the entire time.

I have always had multiple policies with my insurer (e.g. home, auto, and motorcycle). When I moved back to US from Canada:

Current insurance company and insurer for 20+ of those years treated me like I had been uninsured for 2 years for auto, and tried to gouge me. The agent understood what I was telling him, but insurer's policies would not allow consideration for having them in Canada for the two years. I had to insure with someone else for 2 years before they'd give me a reasonable rate.

I have a mortgage so I'm obligated by contract with lender to have homeowner's insurance.

My home has their version of the standard Texas Dept. of Insurance HO-B (i.e. all peril coverage for dwelling and named peril for personal belongings. It's 100% replacement cost minus deductible) with amendments (e.g. water back-up).

Last spring, I filed my first ever homeowner's claim for hail damage on entire roof. I'm the one who bought the policy with a deductible at 2% of home's value so I knew I'd pay a large portion of the replacement roof for what was a 7.9 year old roof at time of damage. I've done the standard dance with the adjuster, hired a public adjuster {i.e. where the thread ended}, invoked appraisal, and have had to resort to hiring an attorney.

In other words, the 20+ years of paying them a premium has been a rip-off:

In the base case - whenever a consumer is obligated by gov't or 3rd party (e.g. mortgage lender) to have insurance, the consumer is going to get screwed on premium prices

In my specific case - They're in the deny, defer, defend mode.

I recall your thread and think I may have even posted in it. Pretty sure I recall the carrier as its mine. I've had them 45 years and have always been treated fairly with my few claims. But, I'm seeing WAY too many stories where they are now being totally unreasonable in claims situations.
I really want to shop my insurance and find a new carrier but I have a complicating factor (with most companies) that keeps me locked in. Hoping to eliminate my complicating factor this summer so I can get to insurance shopping but that will require the settlement of an estate that is out of my hands timeline wise.
Hope you end up getting what you rightfully deserve and they get smacked down good for putting you through the mill.

quote:

Originally posted by chellim1:
Yes, and no.
In one way, I agree... it's a scam. The insurance company always comes out ahead because if they don't, they raise the premium enough in the future to make up for it. And they keep raising premiums on good customers until they leave for another company.

But on the other hand, insurance should only be for large losses, like when your house burns down. That keeps it affordable. If every roof is paid for by an insurance company that only raises premiums and increases the cost of roofing.

Agreed. When we bought our house our policy had a $1000 deductible. I never made a claim, but premiums kept going up every year until they were getting ridiculous. I thought it through and realized that having a deductible that low was a needless expense. Anything under $10k worth of damage and I'm just going to fix it myself for a fraction of that price since I won't be paying labor and materials markup (when we redid our roof I got quoted everywhere from $10k-$32k. I did it myself for $4500). So I went in and talked to my agent and got my deductible increased. It's now a percentage that equates to about $8k. My premiums went down significantly...still more than I think they should be, but it's better.

They other thing they don't tell you is that if you ever do have a major claim that they have to pay out on, they'll pay it but they're also going to drop you. Then you'll have to go shopping for a different carrier, and with that recent claim on your record you'll be paying out the nose. My buddy had that happen last year when his barn burned down. They rebuilt it, but dropped him and the cheapest rate he could find after that was almost 3x what he was paying before the fire.

Somebody's always going to get screwed, and the insurance companies are really good at making sure it's you.

A side note: Take yearly photos and videos of your home and everything inside.

Sometimes the insurance will write you a check for everything, but other times you need to claim every single item lost separately with an estimated value for each.